Widow of Pat Finucane granted leave for new judicial review

Widow of Pat Finucane granted leave for new judicial review

Pat Finucane

The widow of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane has been granted leave for a judicial review of the UK government’s refusal to order a fresh public inquiry into the 1998 killing.

Mr Justice Scoffield, in the High Court in Belfast, yesterday granted leave for Geraldine Finucane’s new judicial review proceedings and listed the case for a full hearing in June.

The UK Supreme Court previously ruled in February 2019 that the state had failed to deliver an Article 2 compliant investigation into the death of Mr Finucane, who was shot and killed by loyalist paramilitaries in collusion with UK security forces.

The government did not respond until December 2020, when it said it would not establish a public inquiry and highlighted an ongoing “review process” within the PSNI and investigations by the Police Ombudsman.

However, the PSNI subsequently said there are “no new lines of inquiry” and the Police Ombudsman said the murder was “not central to any of our ongoing investigations”, which human rights campaigners said challenged the government’s explanation.

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